The Solid Life of Sugar Water (The Drum, Plymouth)

Alice and Phil. Phil and Alice. After a chance meeting in the Post Office queue, they have set off on life’s journey together – falling in love, marrying and then planning a pregnancy, right down to trial runs of the route to the hospital.

But when we first meet them, asleep in bed together, they are obviously estranged in some way. They are, we discover, devastated by the sudden loss of their child. A loss that affects them in different ways.

Jack Thorne‘s The Solid Life of Sugar Water sneaks up on you. At first it’s a no-holds-barred account of Alice and Phil’s discovery of each other. The intimate moments of love-making as they explore the pleasure to be had from being together. "He’s harmless" Alice repeatedly says of Phil. But in the privacy of their underwear-strewn bedroom (cleverly reconstructed upright on stage), they can be who they really are.

Of course, the real truth for the audience is that – as witnesses to the sex lives they vividly describe – we feel more comfortable hearing about what makes them tick in the bedroom than listening to them trying to articulate their deeply felt loss.

Graeae Theatre Company‘s play was a hit at last summer’s Edinburgh Festival (four and five star reviews and winner of Euan’s Guide Accessible Fringe Award) and it now embarks on a month-long tour before a run at the National Theatre. The company, which boldly places deaf and disabled artists centre stage, has made this performance accessible in more ways than one, with audio descriptions and surtitles on stage.

The fact that the drama hinges on communication isn’t lost on anyone watching this performance. It resonates long after the show has ended.

Amit Sharma‘s bold direction allows Genevieve Barr and Arthur Hughes simply to tell their stories. The surtitles on stage reveal how precisely scripted the tale is, but also how naturally the cast deliver their lines.

Alice and Phil are stripped bare, raw, and aching from the enormity of their grief. We’ve all known grief and bereavement in some form: not sharing their own particular experience doesn’t make this play any the less powerful.

There’s a palpable sense of longing and hurt as Phil and Alice try to make sense of what has happened to them. It’s simple and engaging and works well in an intimate setting where there’s no hiding place from the pain.

The Solid Life of Sugar Water is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre (2-6 February), Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester (9-13 February), The Dukes, Lancaster (16&17 February), Hull Truck Theatre (18-20 February), Cambridge Junction (22 February) and then at the National Theatre, London (26 February-19 March).